Cutaway van chassis are used by second stage manufacturers for a wide range of completed motor vehicles. They are usually based upon incomplete vans made by manufacturers and, to these incomplete vans, a second stage manufacturer adds specific equipment and completes the vehicle. Common applications of this type of vehicles include small trucks, school buses, recreational vehicles, minibuses, and ambulances for example.
A Type A bus as known in the art is a van conversion or bus or multi-passenger vehicle for example, constructed utilizing a cutaway front section vehicle with a driver's door and an opposite passenger's door. A cutaway chassis generally features a cabin, ending immediately behind the driver and front passenger seats, and allowing for these two doors.
As shown in FIG. 1, a side window assembly for a single rear wheel vehicle (SRW) as known in the art comprises two parts: an internal part (see FIG. 1A) and an external part (see FIG. 1B), both typically molded in a composite material. These two parts are individually installed on the vehicle, and then a glass part or glazing (G) is installed using a gasket.
As shown in FIG. 2, a window assembly for a dual rear wheel (DRW) vehicle as known in the art also comprises two parts: an internal part (FIG. 2A) and an external part (FIG. 2B) both typically molded in a composite material. The two molded parts are first preassembled, and are then installed as a whole on the vehicle before a glass part is glued, from the outside of the vehicle, on the assembly joint of the two parts.
Depending on the relative alignment between the chassis rails and the cabin, a gap (see FIG. 1C) may occur between the internal part and the glass part (G) or between the external part and the fender of the cabin for example; indeed, the installation and robustness of the windows is dependent on chassis misalignment, as these windows rest on the front fender of the cabin 12 over an internal edge of the cabin. Moreover, the installation and robustness of such two-parts windows is always dependant on dimensional variations of the two parts, and, in the case of DRWs in particular, dependant on the precision of the preassembly of the two parts.
There is still a need in the art for a bus side window assembly and method.